Sara Silow - August 8, 1993

Life Before the War

Tell me something. What--how would, how would you spend a day before the, before
the war happened? You would go to school in the morning...

Yes. And after school we have homework and uh, later on other children were coming to us. I was going to them. It was nice.

The um, so you didn't go to separate Hebrew school?

No. Everything was together.

In the one school. Um...

Charley was in a school like this in St. Louis, the academy--Hebrew academy. He was 10 years at such a school.

Was it a Zionist school? Were there Zionists?

In, in St. Louis?

No, no, no, I mean in, in Łódź.

Yes, yes, a religion school.

Did your father talk about Palestine? Did he talk about the Zionists?

No, no. Not with us.

So the--but the school, was it supported by the Zionists? Because they taught
Hebrew...

It was a private school.

When you went to shul, it was an Orthodox shul?

Sure.

What was the name of the shul?

My father went over to our shul. The shul was built by his gra... uh, grandfather, by his grandfather. I don't know the name.

Do you remember the street it was on?

Huh?

Do you remember the street it was on?

The street? No, I not remember. It was too, too long.

It wasn't on Brzezinska Street, was it?

You know Łódź?

Ah, a little bit.

Really?

Was it Brzezinska Street, because there was a shul on Brzezinska Street?

No.

And it wasn't the reform shul, um...

You are from Poland?

No, no.

No.

And Kos...Kosciuszko Boulevard? Wasn't there a shul on Kosciuszko Boulevard?

Kosciuszko? No, this was not.

That wasn't it? There was a reform shul.

Yeah. But this was a relig...a religion eh, eh, place that my father was going. It was built by his fa...grandfather. Yeah.

Did you know your grandfather?

Oh, yeah. This was my father's grandfather. He died when he was a hundred-years-old.

But your gran...

My mother's grand...uh, father was my, my grandfather. I remember him. He was seventy-four and he was president in, in the shul--largest shul from, from Łódź, on Wolborska. We were in the ghetto on Wolborska.

What was it called, the big shul?

Oh Yeah, the biggest shul in, in, in Łódź. Yeah. When he died, they took him to the shul. Yeah. The funeral was--the street was full with people, so many. I always remember this.